HC Deb 29 June 1994 vol 245 cc810-2
14. Mr. William O'Brien

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the latest figures for public sector house building; and if he will make a statement.

Sir George Young

Local authorities and other public sector bodies completed 1,254 dwellings in 1993. Housing associations are now the main new source of subsidised housing: in 1993–94 they provided 56,500 homes with grant from central Government, and 8,334 homes with grant funded by local authorities.

Mr. O'Brien

That response shows just how pathetic is the Government's policy on providing affordable housing. Does the right hon. Gentleman accept that the organisations best placed to manage and provide affordable houses are local authorities, with my local authority of Wakefield in the lead? Does he accept that the Government's policy is wrong? Is he prepared to argue with his colleagues to change the direction of that policy and allow local authorities to provide more public, affordable housing for the people who need it?

Sir George Young

No, the policy is not wrong at all. The hon. Gentleman will know that we have provided about 25,000 more homes than we promised in our election manifesto three years ago.

Some local authorities may be the best managers of local authority stock; clearly, some of them are not. We get more homes for people in need by routing public money through housing associations than we do by routing it through local authorities. So there is a great deal of common sense behind the Government's policy of involving housing associations in providing the homes for rent that the country needs.

Mr. Patrick Thompson

Is my right hon. Friend aware that Labour-controlled Norwich city council is determined to maintain its traditional role as the main provider of rented housing in Norwich? Does he agree that that antediluvian, hidebound attitude does nothing to reduce the waiting list, now running at about 3,000 in Norwich? Would not it be better to encourage the council's co-operation with housing associations to solve some of the problems of Norwich in a sensible way?

Sir George Young

I very much hope that Norwich will do what many other local authorities, including Labour-controlled ones, are doing, and will route some of its capital through housing associations, simply because it will provide more homes in that way. No one can be in favour of a monopoly of social rented housing in any city. Many local authorities are encouraging positive partnerships with housing associations, to provide different management styles and types of homes. If any antediluvian authority still wants to go the whole distance on its own, it is way behind what many forward-looking local authorities of all parties are doing.

Mr. Pike

Will the Minister accept that he has presided over a declining local authority house-building programme year after year? Even with the houses built for rent by housing associations, there is a massive shortfall, leaving many people desperately in need of houses to rent. Earlier, the Minister said that 94 per cent. of builders believe that the situation will improve. That is hardly surprising, given that they do not believe that it can possibly get any worse. Why does not the Minister get builders back to work and use councils' capital receipts, and do it now?

Sir George Young

Builders are getting back to work. If the hon. Gentleman looks at the recently published statistics he will see that they show rising output in the construction industry, more private sector house building starts, more housing association house building starts and growing activity. The key statistic for those in housing need is the number of new lettings and the fact that the figure for 1992–93 was 321,000 compared with 312,000 in 1979–80. That is the currency which matters for those on the waiting list.

Dr. Spink

In view of the previous question, will my right hon. Friend confirm that there are now 2.4 million more homes in Britain than there were in 1979 as a result of the low inflation and low interest rates that the Government are pursuing and now achieving, and will he continue to encourage his right hon. Friends in that pursuit?

Sir George Young

My hon. Friend is right to point out that the housing stock has risen faster than the population and that the prospects for a recovery in the house building market are now very good, with house prices affordable, confidence returning to the housing market and land with planning permission readily available. I hope that the confidence that we have begun to see emerging during the past few months will carry forward during the next months and years.